The environment is often cited as an important factor influencing the health status of individuals. This includes characteristics of the natural environment, the built environment and the social environment. Factors such as clean water and air, adequate housing, and safe communities and roads all have been found to contribute to good health, especially to the health of infants and children.[19][30] Some studies have shown that a lack of neighborhood recreational spaces including natural environment leads to lower levels of personal satisfaction and higher levels of obesity, linked to lower overall health and well being.[31] This suggests that the positive health benefits of natural space in urban neighborhoods should be taken into account in public policy and land use.
WH DPG Awards Coordinator, Ginger Carney, has gathered resources regarding the intention and initiation of breastfeeding among women who are incarcerated: Interesting article from the AAFP (American Academy of Family Practitioners): https://www.aafp.org/news/health-of-the-public/20170718incarceratedbreastfeed.html Interesting power point presentation from a WIC program in California making their case: http://californiabreastfeeding.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/CBC-Breastfeeding-in-the-Incarcerated-Mother.pdf From an AWHONN (annual meeting): https://awhonn.confex.com/awhonn/2013/webprogram/Paper9198.html From Michigan: https://www.mibreastfeeding.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Incarceration-MIBFN-Policy-Position.pdf […]
The great positive impact of public health programs is widely acknowledged. Due in part to the policies and actions developed through public health, the 20th century registered a decrease in the mortality rates for infants and children and a continual increase in life expectancy in most parts of the world. For example, it is estimated that life expectancy has increased for Americans by thirty years since 1900,[54] and worldwide by six years since 1990.[55]
The meaning of health has evolved over time. In keeping with the biomedical perspective, early definitions of health focused on the theme of the body's ability to function; health was seen as a state of normal function that could be disrupted from time to time by disease. An example of such a definition of health is: "a state characterized by anatomic, physiologic, and psychological integrity; ability to perform personally valued family, work, and community roles; ability to deal with physical, biological, psychological, and social stress".[7] Then in 1948, in a radical departure from previous definitions, the World Health Organization (WHO) proposed a definition that aimed higher: linking health to well-being, in terms of "physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".[8] Although this definition was welcomed by some as being innovative, it was also criticized as being vague, excessively broad and was not construed as measurable. For a long time, it was set aside as an impractical ideal and most discussions of health returned to the practicality of the biomedical model.[9]